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Alumni Profile

Gregory Schulte

Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Space Policy; Former U.S. Permanent Representative to the International Atomic Energy Agency

MPA, Class of 1983

Ambassador Gregory L. Schulte retired in October 2014 from a 34-year career in public service and national security, having served in assignments from the White House to the Pentagon, and the United Nations to NATO. His most recent assignment was as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Space Policy, where he oversaw development and implementation of the first-ever national security strategy for space. Ambassador Schulte was U.S. Permanent Representative to the International Atomic Energy Agency and the United Nations in Vienna from 2005 to 2009 under Presidents Bush and Obama. He advanced the investigation of Iran’s nuclear activities and helped implement the U.S. nuclear cooperation agreement with India. He also worked with the UN Office on Drugs and Crime to help combat the trafficking of people and drugs. Mr. Schulte served three tours in the White House under two Presidents. As Executive Secretary of the National Security Council (NSC) from 2003 to 2005, Mr. Schulte traveled extensively with President Bush, oversaw the White House Situation Room, and was responsible for NSC emergency readiness after 9/11. As NSC Senior Director for Southeast European Affairs from 2000 to 2002, Mr. Schulte advised Presidents Clinton and Bush on U.S. diplomacy and military deployments in Bosnia and Kosovo and oversaw U.S. efforts to bring democracy to Serbia. As Special Assistant to the President from 1998 to 1999, Mr. Schulte advised President Clinton on the Kosovo crisis and oversaw interagency planning for the NATO air campaign and subsequent deployment of a NATO-led force and UN mission. From 1992 to 1998, Mr. Schulte was assigned to the NATO Headquarter in Brussels. As Director for Crisis Management and Operations and Director for Nuclear Planning, he helped NATO adapt its planning and posture after the end of the Cold War. As Director of the Bosnia Task Force, Mr. Schulte helped NATO organize its first out-of-area deployments and its first collaboration with the United Nations. Mr. Schulte entered public service in 1983 as a Presidential Management Intern in the Office of the Secretary of Defense. There he has served as Director for Strategic Forces and Principal Director for Requirements, Plans, and Counterproliferation Policy. He most recently was on the faculty of the National War College charged with teaching national security strategy to our nation’s next generation of military and civilian leaders. Mr. Schulte graduated magna cum laude from the University of California at Berkeley in1980 with a dual major in Political Science and Economics and earned a Master in Public Administration from Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School in 1983.